Google Chairman Eric Schmidt sat down with The Economist’s Daniel Franklin on Dec. 6, as part of the executive’s ongoing media tour, to discuss everything from driverless cars and the mobile landscape to user data and “magical journalism devices.”

One of the more notable tidbits (at 25:40) regards why Marissa Mayer and other Googlers really left Google to become CEOs of Yahoo and other competing companies such AOL and Facebook. Schmidt suggested they were unable to move up the corporate ladder so they ultimately moved on:

“Well, in each case, they became—let’s see—CEOs of important and powerful companies. And that position has been occupied by Larry and myself, so I think perhaps they wanted a career path that wasn’t in front of them. Each of them is fantastic. And if you look, each of them sort of trained at Google —independently strong, they’ll make a good showing.”

Earlier today, Schmidt spoke with Bloomberg to talk Android vs. Apple. The former CEO notably claimed Android is leading over Apple at a rate similar to Microsoft’s growth in desktop software during the 90s.

Google cofounder Larry Page succeeded Schmidt as Google’s chief executive officer in April 2011, and now Schmidt, among many other tasks, acts as a kind of executive spokesperson for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.